Fidget spinners: Are they helping children focus?

A new trend is hitting schools all across the country and now some are calling for a ban.

Author:
Halie Cook

Published:
3:44 PM PST May 11, 2017

Fidget spinners are dominating the market and selling out all across the country -- but are these devices actually helping children focus?

The devices are supposed to be helping children who suffer from ADD and ADHD focus in the classroom. But Sanford J. Silverman, a licensed psychologist from the Center for Attention Deficit Disorder, doesn’t think the devices are helping in all cases.

“Getting the child's brain to be active when you have ADD is valid because many times the typical scenario we see is that their brain activity shows an excess amount of slow activity, saying that they drift a lot and they need stimulation," said Silverman. "Now is it a fidgeting device like a spinner -- is that going to activate their brain? I don’t think that’s the most productive way to do it.”

Silverman thinks that being more active is more productive than using the spinning devices.

“Exercise can help, having them be a monitor, deliver something to another teacher, getting them out of the seat so they can have a little physical exercise, perhaps visiting the school counselor to talk about how their school day is going briefly, stretching -- I think would be more productive,“ said Silverman.